Restaurant for Solo Diners Opens

If you've ever dined alone in a crowded restaurant, then you're familiar with the initial awkwardness of dining solo. Yet there are some who prefer to eat out alone. Now a restaurant has established itself as an eatery exclusively for those who need a table for one.

The restaurant, Eenmaal, located in Amsterdam, has opened for two short weeks as a pop-up. Dutch design firm Marina van Goor and branding agency Vandejon launched Eenmaal (translated it means both 'one time' and 'one meal') in the hopes of making solitary dining a less taboo activity.

"It is the perfect place to dine in pleasant solitude; an exciting experiment for those who never go out for dinner alone and an attractive place to eat for those who already enjoy doing so," said creator Marina van Goor in a press release. Before opening the summertime restaurant, the concept was tested earlier in the year at a food festival in Amsterdam. "We wanted to entice people to come to the restaurant and at the same time, to give them food for thought," said Pjotr de Jong, creative director at Vandejong.

Stateside, Dirt Candy, a vegetarian restaurant in New York's East Village, hosts an annual "Solo Diner's Week" to coincide with Valentine's Day  owner Amanda Cohen's least favorite holiday. "The bummer about dining alone is that you dont get to try enough of the menu," Cohen laments on her restaurant's website. Her objective was not only to allow lone diners to enjoy more than just one dish, but to remind folks that they are not just eating alone, but "choosing to go on a date with the coolest person you know  yourself."

Do you ever dine alone? Which do you prefer: to dine solo or with others?

Posted by Kiri Tannenbaum

Kiri Tannenbaum is a contributing editor at Delish. Her love of food was sparked by an extended stay in Florence, Italy, where she assisted in the kitchen, shaving bittersweet chocolate over creamy, homemade tiramisu. Though she has no Italian blood in her lineage, Kiri always makes her sauce from scratch and hopes one day to adopt an Italian grandmother. Read More

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